Friday, July 30, 2010

A man walks into a bar in the late evening, looking for a little female companionship. The only woman in the place is already cuddled up to an extremely ugly guy, giving him little kisses and rubbing his thigh. After a few minutes the two leave.

Turning to the bartender the man says, "Damn, how does an ugly guy like that get a gorgeous girl like her? He must be loaded or something."

The bartender replies, "Well, he always does well with the ladies, for some reason. He's not rich, only orders well drinks. Doesn't talk much either, doesn't seem to be any good at small talk. In fact, most of the evening he just sits in the corner, licking his eyebrows."

They aren't normally lethal to adults, but children, the elderly and especially pets are at risk from the bites.

In the 20 years I've been here I've only come across one in the wild, but I don't go hunting for them. I actually captured that one, which was crawling into a display enclosure at the Carolina Raptor Center. I also have a copperhead skin hatband on a cowboy hat I own, courtesy of a copperhead who tried to cross the road in front of our house and failed.

People often confuse other snakes for copperheads - - the blogger known as AD (Ambulance Driver) did it here - - but a few minutes' study can teach you to see the difference. Here in NC, this is what a copperhead looks like:

The harmless Corn Snake, which comes in several color variations, can look similar:

Another NC snake often confused with the copperhead is the Mole Kingsnake, although this snake is secretive and not often seen by humans (I actually saw a pair of male Mole Kingsnakes engaging in combat over a female):

Some water snakes can be confused with copperheads, although water snakes are far more often confused with cottonmouths.

Copperheads eat rodents, so if you don't engage in habits that attract rodents to your house, the copperheads won't follow. The #1 way to attract rodents to your house is to have bird feeders; the seeds that drop to the ground attract mice, a favorite food of copperheads (and other snakes).

Snakebites can be classified in two broad categories: legitimate bites come from the snake defending itself after being inadvertently stepped on or frightened by an otherwise oblivious human; illegitimate bites are those that come from humans who attempt to capture or kill a venomous snake and are bitten while doing so. Many of these cases come from religious snake handlers, as you might expect. I'd have a hard time condemning anyone for killing a venomous snake in their yard, but I'd not be happy with those who kill every venomous snake they come across while hiking or otherwise in the wilderness. Leave 'em alone; they live there, you don't.

If you're bitten, you need to get to the emergency room as soon as possible. You probably won't be given antivenin for a copperhead bite, as they aren't usually fatal. You'll need antibiotics, however, to lessen chance of infection that results from the bite, and anti-tetanus as a preventative measure, just as if you encountered a rusty nail. Don't cut the bite or use a tourniquet; those are old techniques that have long been discredited. Just get to the emergency room as quickly and safely as possible.

The exceptions to the rule of the responsible gun owner generate headlines and casualties. The largest threat that Appleseed poses is the possibility that some future gunmen will find their way from some dark-side message board to an Appleseed boot camp. “There’s always going to be someone who thinks the revolution is sooner rather than later,” Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center says. “Now they’re learning to be snipers. You would hope Appleseed would do some screening.”

When I asked Dailey about this, he said, “If we recruited 500 people from one of these crazy boards and 499 of them wound up agreeing with us, then what would you say?”

“I would want to know about the one who didn’t agree,” I said. “You’ve taught him how to kill with a rifle out to 500 yards.”

“Well, the only precaution for that is not to teach the skills at all. Why even let them have the hardware, in that case?” He proposed an analogy. “What if the inmates in the asylum were stabbing each other with knives? Do you give them plastic spoons? Or do you cure the insanity?”

“But part of what you’re doing is sharpening the knives.”

“If we can cure the insanity, I think it’s a fair trade.”

You get the feeling, however, that the writer of the article would rather the inmates be given plastic spoons.

Abandoned in the ice, the ship now lies in approx. 36 feet of water, lying in an upright condition,and, as is common in cold climates, is in a good state of preservation. Nearby are the graves of three sailors who died of scurvy, a common ailment in Arctic travel.

It would be a good policy for all good conservatives/Republicans to bookmark this list and, when a news report comes out written by one of these JournoListers, mark the person's name with an asterisk and the following disclaimer:

* indicates membership in JournoList, and thus not to be trusted to be objective.

Let's make this a badge of shame, so that the JournoListers involved have to constantly justify themselves and prove their objectivity.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Got a walking stick in the mail today, but what was interesting was the strip of green bubble wrap that was used to pack it:

That is only about 1/3 of it hanging out of the box. Pulling it out of the box felt strangely as if I was disemboweling someone. But in a good way, you understand. No blood, bile, slime or stink involved. I may have to go do it again.

Full details aren't available, but it's hard to imagine a scenario in which you walk out to the targets while a range is hot. It was neglect of range rules one someone's part, anyway.

I swanny, I feel the collective IQ drop ten points every time I cross into South Carolina. Sara and I often drive there on weekends because we know we'll see something so gut-bustingly funny that entertainment is guaranteed.

GREENVILLE, S.C. Authorities say a 28-year-old South Carolina man has been shot by a neighbor after a rampage that included the stabbing death of his girlfriend.

Greenville County sheriff's deputies say Zacharia Pearson took a large knife from the kitchen after he got into a fight with his 24-year-old girlfriend early Monday at a home in Piedmont and stabbed her until the knife broke. Her name has not been released.

Authorities say a neighbor came out to see what was happening and Pearson charged him with a pipe.

Deputies say the man shot Pearson twice with a concealed weapon he had a permit to carry.

Pearson is still alive as of this writing, unfortunately. Kudos to the gun owner.

Swissvale police say 48-year-old Dennis Hawkins of North Braddock was sitting in a parked car covered in red dye from an exploding packet in a bag of money when he was arrested Saturday.

Police Chief Greg Geppert says Hawkins robbed the bank at gunpoint, using a toy BB gun he had shoplifted from a store.

OK, so he was in drag with blond wig and fake breasts? So he looked like Dolly Parton robbing the bank with a BB gun?

And to top it off, the teller slipped a dye pack into the money bag, so it went off while he was in his getaway car, so he's there looking like Dolly Parton covered in blood when the po-po's arrive to haul his carcass off to the pokey?

How did the cops manage that without dying of terminal laughing fits?

update: I was watching the local news tonight and saw a report on this crime, during which they showed closed-circuit footage of the criminal. He's black with a closely-trimmed beard, so you have a bearded black guy in drag with a blond wig and fake tits, and, after the dye pack exploded, seemingly covered in blood from the dye.

Fund said there was a pattern of "consistent politicization" in the Justice Department, listing examples of Voting Rights Act decisions in the South.

"North Carolina is predominantly African-American," Fund said, "and voted to have non-partisan elections. The Justice Department said you can't do that. You have to continue to give black voters the cue of Democrat versus Republican so they'll know who to vote for.

Aside from being a rather racist statement per se in that it presumes blacks are too stupid to know who to vote for without party labels, Fund also gets the demographic makeup of North Carolina waaaaaaay wrong. Wikipedia cites US Census Data showing that North Carolina's demographic mix is around 74% white and 22% black, with the rest of the minorities making up the remaining 4%.

So, next step is to see if Fund has an email box at the post for a correction.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Among them is the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau (LHA-4), which I served aboard during the early 1980's.

Here she is:

I had a lot of fun aboard that ship. Good food (breakfast cinnamon rolls were outstanding) and comfortable berthing areas, and large enough to provide plenty of amenities. I've seen her all the ways you can see her: crossdecking from another ship via an LCM into her well deck; helicoptering off to another ship; leaving her via an LCM which landed us on the beach at Little Creek Amphibious Base, the closest I'll ever get to an amphibious landing of my own; and, of course, walking onto her via the brow at the pier at Norfolk Naval Base. I was onboard her in 1983 off the coast of Lebanon when the USMC barracks bombing occurred, cross-decking to the USS Guam (LPH-9). I've heard that because of that bombing that I'm eligible to wear the National Defense Ribbon, but I've never investigated the possibility of acquiring one, and it's sort of a geedunk ribbon, anyway.

The Nassau will go into the reserve fleet, while others of the 11 ships involved in the inactivation will be sold to other navies, held in reserve, or possibly scrapped.

Yet there is another chain mentioned in the article whose name didn't leap out at me, at least at first, then finally I got it:

Hugh Jass Burgers. Say it out loud. It's one of those names that is clever but naughty, and doesn't really account for children in society or, rather, expects that the mild profanity involved is worth the offense it causes.

Here's the logo for Hugh Jass Burgers:

Maybe they should try and get Kim Kardashian as their celebrity spokesman?

We lived in a house on beautiful Lake Santa Fe, a spring-fed lake and the source of the Santa Fe River. Indians lived by the lake long ago, and you could find their stone tools, arrow and spear points, after a rain storm. The lake was home to largemouth bass, bluegill, shellcracker, and black crappie, which locals called "speckled perch." The lake water was tea-colored from the bald cypress trees. Fishing, sailing and water skiing were all popular sports on the lake. The lake was linked via canals to other small lakes, such as Black Lake, Bonnet Pond, and Lake Alto. Melrose itself only had one traffic light, and that one was a blinking one, at the junction of SR 26 and SR 21.

“I do not think we should be spending money to have troops in Germany 65 years after World War II. We have a terrible deficit and we have to cut back,” said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, who is spearheading a House effort to cut defense spending. “NATO was a wonderful concept. But 61 years later, I think it’s time to say our western European allies should be on their own. We’ll cooperate with them, but we shouldn’t be subsidizing their defense.”

I have different reasons than Barney, though, probably. I'd pull out the troops because I'm an isolationist, a philosophy which I doubt Barney shares.

It took its time and wasn't interested in a long journey, was it? It was a small glass bottle, which causes more drag in the water and a slower journey; these days, if you use a lightweight plastic bottle you can have better results.

update: fixed a grammatical error. Thanks to Wally for pointing it out.

I remember reading about this little shit a few years ago over at the Jawa Report, and I daydreamed a few times of how difficult it might be to drive over some evening with a rifle and shoot the s.o.b. as he went outside to retrieve the mail at his parents' house, where he was living.

The funny thing is that the little weasel never did anything overt enough to warrant his arrest here in the US, so DHS and the FBI, although they knew of him and presumably monitored him, took no action on the grounds that even a loathsome little reptile like Khan was covered by the Bill of Rights. Now he's in Yemen, editing Al-Qaeda's online magazine Inspire, designed as a recruitment tool. The little shit probably learned how to make a glossy product while up at Central Piedmont Community College.

I've only started to review news stories on this, but I've already noticed this fucking idiot going off half-cocked and blaming the Tea Party movement without any evidence whatsoever of a Tea Party link; in a more reasoned discussion, we have this story that seeks to differentiate between the various types of domestic political terrorism in the US; this story fails a bit when the writer claims that there is no liberal equivalent to conservative talk radio (Air America, anyone?) but otherwise offers good analysis. I'll get to some other news links on this story a bit later, I have to run some errands this morning after I leave work.

Update: most of the straight-news stories are sticking to the facts at this point and not engaging in speculation. The blogs are less restrained, with Daily Kos blaming Fox News for the shootings; this blog at AlterNet asks "I wonder what network he watched." A more humorous angle is taken by this blog, which uses Lindsay Lohan's troubles to try to draw attention to the I-580 shootings, hinting that Lohan's troubles are acting as a distraction to reporting more serious stories.

I'm fascinated by the role that the shooter's mother has played in this. According to the news stories, the guns that Williams used in the shootout belonged to his mother, and that she purchased them with the intent to have them ready for a revolution. Perhaps, then, the apple didn't fall that far from the tree, and his anti-government/anti-leftist stance was under his mother's influence. She probably needs to stop talking and consult a lawyer herself at this point.

Names are named, and their own words from Journolist emails are revealed; not only do they work within the confines of their own newsrooms, but they reach out to each other across the internet to coordinate their actions to deceive the American people and further their own leftist agenda.

My worry is that Breitbart will crash and burn in some spectacular fashion, a victim of his own hubris, and we'll be left without anyone willing to get into the trenches with the Lefties and fight the war up close and personal.

If the guy turns out to be a Tea Party participant then the MSM will finally have the violent example that they've been craving, and there will be an orgy of hysterical headlines, all variations on the I told you so! theme.

It will be interesting to see what the fellow intended to do, having armed himself and armored himself. I have to guess that he just snapped and had no organized plan, and the Oakland cops happened to present themselves as the first targets of opportunity. Someone who was deadly serious about provoking an ideological civil war would probably go about it in a more organized and cold-blooded manner; Timothy McVeigh immediately comes to mind.

So let's see where this story goes. It may disappear quickly off the map, or may become a seven days' wonder, depending on the motives and associations of the shooter.

There is a new website called "I Write Like" that, given a few sample paragraphs of your writing style, tells you which famous author your writing most resembles. So I submitted the following excerpt from a recent BBQ restaurant review:

Sara regretted ordering fried squash, as it turned out to be frozen rather than fresh. The hush puppies were hand formed and edible, which is better than we have found in many barbecue restaurants. They weren't the best hush puppies we have eaten, though. The pork barbecue meat was sliced as we both requested; not much of a smoke ring in evidence, and not much smoke flavor, either. Still, it was properly tender, if a bit dry (order your barbecue chopped if you want to be able to properly moisten it with sauce). Porky's had two barbecue sauces on hand, a vinegar-based Eastern NC sauce (Sara pronounced it mostly vinegar and otherwise flavorless) and a dark brown tomato-based sauce that probably came from a commercial gallon jug, not much tang and a little too sweet.

Sara had thought about ordering banana pudding for dessert, but after she observed the waitresses manufacturing it behind the lunch counter using a 1-gallon can of commercial pudding glop and commenting loudly enough for Sara to hear about how many bananas to put into it, she decided to skip on the banana pudding. We skipped on the desserts, as a matter of fact.

Service at Porky's was quick and efficient, with our waitress only making one mistake when she poured iced tea into my Diet Coke. She caught herself and brought me a new one, so it was all right in the end.

After lunch we drove home via Albemarle, North Carolina, and stopped in at the Sonic Drive-In there, and ordered milk shakes for our delayed dessert. The waitress roller-skated our order out to us. If you're an American Idol fan, this particular Sonic is the drive-in that Kelly Pickler worked in during high school.

The circumstances are that the Taliban in question was a high-value target and had to be positively identified in order for the Gurkhas to be given credit for killing him. Unfortunately the Gurkhas came under fire while trying to transport the Taliban's body, so an enterprising Gurkha soldier, realizing that positive identification could be made from facial features (and DNA), and that he had a great big razor-sharp knife available to him, beheaded the Taliban and transported the much lighter head to the rear.

And, as you might expect in these more politically correct times, that's a Bad Thing. Never mind that that's exactly what the Taliban do to captured NATO soldiers; never mind that this is war, and war is hell; the only thing that matters is that beheading a Taliban is wrong, because it's offensive to the Taliban.

We heard about 521 BBQ & Grill from my sister Karen, who mentioned that friends had eaten there and liked the food, so on Saturday morning we headed down US 521 (hence the name) to Indian Land, so named because the Catawba tribe lives in the area.

Sara and I had passed by this restaurant while travelling on several occasions without noting its presence because of poor signage:

You can see that, although there is plenty of room above that awning to affix a large, prominent sign, all that the owners currently have is a mini-sign in dark colors that make it hard to read what is advertised; further signage is painted on the window, but as you can see, when there are cars parked in front of the restaurant, the signage on the window is hard to see, too.

There was a good bit of business in the restaurant when we entered for lunch. A medical facility is just down the road, as is a local fire department and police department; three cops were eating at the time we entered.

The waitress took our drinks and left us to check out the menu. I ordered a BBQ tray:

Sara had the BBQ plate, which has more side items:

In addition, I had some fried mozzarella sticks. The BBQ was a good mix of outside brown and inside white meat, a little dry; portions were a bit stingy compared to other BBQ places we've eaten at. Three sauces were available: vinegar-based eastern NC sauce; sweet brown tomato-based sauce typical of Memphis (Sara said it tasted like Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce) and yellow mustard-based SC-style sauce, this latter tasting much like Maurice's BBQ sauce. Hush puppies were hand-formed and edible, otherwise unremarkable. French fries were the typical BBQ joint crinkle cuts; a large pile of these in the tray, to fill it out; without them, the tray would have looked rather empty with just the BBQ and pups.

The waitress was efficient and kept our drinks topped up. I noted that the staff was entirely female, as a matter of fact; waitresses, cashier and cooks, all.

The food was average pork BBQ, pretty much what you find throughout North and South Carolina. I'll give 521 BBQ & Grill a 3 on my 5-scale of BBQ restaurants: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management. We'll eat there again if we happen to be in the area and craving BBQ, but have no reason to make a special trip for it. They're hurting their potential business by not improving their signage, would get more customers if people could identify this storefront as a BBQ restaurant when passing by on the highway.

These Food Network groupies are as much into virgins as your typical suicide bomber. Me? I'm like Jeff Dunham's pal Walter; if I was a suicide bomber, I wouldn't want 72 virgins when I died, I'd want 72 slutty broads who know what the hell they're doing!

Introducing the Redlove apple, which isn't in stores yet and won't be for a few years:

Handsome, ain't it? I'd be willing to try them, I like trying new apple varieties. The problem with this one is that it will be tempting to the apple growers to mess with it to maximize color at the expense of taste, as happened to the Red Delicious.

The Charlotte man was the successful bidder in a sealed bid sale May 13 for the well-known nautical landmark about 25 miles southeast of Southport.

In fact, a federal General Services Administration spokesman said Neal was the only bidder for the modified 80-foot steel oil drilling platform, which was used by the Coast Guard as an aid to navigation from 1966 until about eight years ago. GPS and buoys rendered the tower obsolete, and the Coast Guard turned the nautical landmark over to the GSA to be sold.

Neal bought the tower for $85,000, which is a bargain, in my opinion. He'll have to spend up to $1.3 million for repairs before it is ready for regular human use. He envisions it as a high-end base for fishermen or divers, or maybe a bed-and-breakfast.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Police say 27-year-old Elliott Taylor and a friend had just returned from shooting and were cleaning their weapons Tuesday evening when the friend's gun fired through his hand and hit Taylor in the lower abdomen.

Sounds like a Glock was the gun involved, since field-stripping involves pulling the trigger on it. Guy probably had the take-down lever in his left hand and pulled the trigger with his right as part of field-stripping, and there was still a round in the chamber. Violation of rules 1, 2, and 4 of Jeff Cooper's gun safety rules.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

It's a small island off the west coast of Scotland, owned by the McEwan family. The McEwans are looking for a UK family with children to live there year-round. It's remote, with few amenities and even electricity is hard to come by.

Here's a pic:

The island is so free of crime that, not only do they not lock their doors, some of the doors don't even have locks.

I do not like this Uncle Sam,I do not like his health care scam.I do not like these dirty crooks,or how they lie and cook the books.I do not like when Congress steals,I do not like their secret deals.I do not like this speaker Nan,I do not like this 'YES WE CAN'.I do not like this spending spree,I'm smart, I know that nothing's free,I do not like your smug replies,when I complain about your lies.I do not like this kind of hope.I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!

As a kid I loved stories of secret rooms, secret passages, caves, tombs, catacombs, etc. Poe's The Cask of Amontillado was a favorite, along with the scene from the old TV show Dark Shadows where the vampire Barnabas Collins entombs the Reverend Trask into a wall niche alive.

How about the rest of you? Do you wish you had some secret rooms/passages in your own home, or your dream home?

His Yankees won a lot of World Series during his ownership, you have to grant him that. Having said that, he probably drove Billy Martin into an early grave, and that's hard to forgive. Maybe they'll work it out in the afterlife, now that Steinbrenner has passed on.

Monday, July 12, 2010

One of my daydreams/hermit fantasies is to live in one of the Chesapeake Bay screwpile lighthouses like this one:

I'd have a nice rifle and some handguns along with me, and I'd shoot at plastic bottles floating by. I'd sit on the outer deck in a rocking chair with the rifle across my knees: creeeak...creeeak...creeeeak...creeeak...BANG! I'd fish, and crab, and holler at trespassers...

See, we always suspected that Hispanics speak more English than they're willing to let on, and feign ignorance to get out of traffic tickets and other unpleasant situations that they encounter in their lives.

Bellingham resident Jon Shaughnessy learned about the downside of raccoons soon after he found some of their potentially deadly droppings beneath his porch.

"I said, 'Whoa, this is serious stuff,'" he said. "People die from it."

He's right. Read on, but the story isn't pretty.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Many raccoons have roundworms called Baylisascaris in their intestines. The roundworms produce millions of eggs, which are passed on in the raccoon's feces. Those hardy eggs can take hold inside people and can cause fatal brain infections.

It's been out there all this time, and I never knew!

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Many raccoons have roundworms called Baylisascaris in their intestines. The roundworms produce millions of eggs, which are passed on in the raccoon's feces. Those hardy eggs can take hold inside people and can cause fatal brain infections.

WHERE IS THE PROBLEM?

Infected raccoons have been found throughout the country. The critters often defecate in woodpiles; beneath porches; by and on trees; on decks, roofs and garages; and on flat surfaces, such as logs, stumps and large rocks.

When researchers inspected the backyards of 119 suburban Chicago homes, they found raccoon latrines in 61 of them. Fourteen of the latrines had roundworm eggs.

Raccoon feces, by the way, are generally dark, tubular and blunt in shape, strong-smelling, and often full of seeds and other food debris.

HOW DO PEOPLE BECAME SICK?

People who ingest the eggs risk illness and death. Once inside your intestines, the eggs hatch into larvae, which can travel to the brain, liver, spinal cord and other parts of your body.

Victims often are children who have put infected dirt, objects or water in their mouth.

Okay, so you have to eat it. I don't know anyone who eats raccoon shit. Wait a minute - - "infected dirt, objects or water in their mouth." Damn, that means you can get it just from drinking water in the wild. Yet another reason to never go camping!

Gah. Even the Boy Scouts never warned us about raccoon shit. Maybe they need to add that to their manual, give out a Merit Badge for identifying and cleaning up raccoon shit safely.

Given that there is a history of false noose allegations by blacks, if I were investigating this case I'd open two lines of inquiry, one presuming that the black firefighter is telling the truth, the other presuming that the black firefighter is a goddamned lying son of a bitch is not telling the truth.

update:This article indicates that the incident was probably a stupid prank meant as a joke, so my condemnation of the black firefighter in this case was unjust.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Imagine owning a home that is by and large maintenance free, could potentially endure for a milennium, and will keep you safe from hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and even wildfires. Would you be interested in owning one?

I would, for damned sure. Here's an example one of these homes; click the link to see a video showing others.

You know, Domino's Pizza really has gone to the next level in their food products. They apparently aren't willing to coast along in third place in the pizza delivery business anymore, letting Papa John's and Pizza Hut have all the glory and profit.

If you haven't tried one of Domino's Bread Bowl Pasta meals, you're missing something special. And the Lava Crunch Cakes are good enough that many dine-in restaurants would be proud to serve them. Give them a try. The pizzas are much improved, too. I'm not overly fond of the sandwiches yet, those still need work.

A treasure hunter with a metal detector uncovered WWII bombs buried on a beach, and quite capable of exploding all these years later.

Heed The Warning.

Luckily the treasure hunter heeded the warning notice that was buried with the bombs. He called the authorities, who detonated the bombs where they were found, as they were too unstable to risk moving.

Mike Morateck, 46, of Palmyra, took the top prize in the 15-and-up age bracket during Wednesday's contest at the Jefferson County Fair, using his knowledge as a "man of science" to spit the cricket, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday.

"Pick a big cricket -- the heavier the cricket, the further it goes," Morateck said. "Put the cricket in your mouth, feet first on its back with the head pointing out because you don't want the legs dragging on the way out. Then take a big breath through the nose -- otherwise you eat the cricket -- and let it fly."

It's not as if we didn't know that Jimmy was a dirty hippie at heart anyway, but for most of his career he followed the first rule of entertainment: maximize your audience. Apparently the Buffett bank balance is so high now that he has decided that some money is not welcome.

That's ok. My own theory is that he has been one of the Pod People for some time now, with Property of Margaritaville, Inc., stenciled on his left butt cheek. His cloning happened around the time of Floridays, which was one of his last good albums. The clone Buffett was programmed without facial hair, so you know that the "Jimmy Buffett" you see on stage these days, lacking a mustache, is the clone. Apparently the clone is reaching the end of its useful life and, instead of shilling for money regardless of the source, only shills for leftist money.

I've noticed on other Blogger blogs that Google is having problems with comments, in that they aren't showing up in a timely fashion. It appears to have just happened here, so I just want all four of my loyal readers to know it is happening, and to take this into account when you post a comment.

The Balisle commission does warn of the dangers of an “it’s not my problem” ethos in the surface force, which it said will make the Navy’s troubles, from Aegis to corrosion, all the more difficult to fix:

“From the most senior officers to the most junior petty officer, the culture reveals itself in personal attitudes ranging from resignation to frustration to toleration. The downward spiral of the culture is seen throughout the ship, in the longstanding acceptance of poor housekeeping, preservation and corrosion control. Over time, the ignored standard now becomes the norm. Sailors watching their commanding officer, department head, division officer and chief petty officer step over running rust, peeling non-skid or severe structure damage long enough associate this activity as the standard.”

Click to read the whole story.

*sings* Some people claim that Obama's to blame,But we know: It's all Bush's fault.

And really, since the period covered in the report extends from the end of Clinton's term to the present, then the responsibility for the maintenance during the Bush administration cannot be overlooked, and must fall on Bush's shoulders and those of Donald Rumsfeld, who apparently wanted to run the Defense Department on the cheap.

I had one back in the 80's that I bought in Norfolk; an ash-bodied instrument with a translucent white paint job that was reminiscent of a fat woman with varicose veins. I sold it a few years later in Spain. Great guitar for a clean sound, it wasn't very cooperative at giving a dirty or distorted sound, at least until I attached a fuzzbox to it.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

You don't tug on Superman's cape; you don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with ... Ken.

That's the lesson an intruder learned Saturday when 73-year-old Ken Easler surprised the unwanted visitor. Easler had just returned to the rural home he owns with his wife, Dot, on Jones Road near Converse around 11 a.m. Saturday.

When Easler walked through his unlocked front door, he heard someone upstairs and knew it wasn't Dot, whom he had just left at the Hub City Farmers Market, where she was selling fresh produce from the couple's farm.

Easler immediately went for his 9mm Ruger P85 handgun, loaded a round into it and went to the stairwell near the front door, where Easler said the intruder was sneaking down until he saw the gun.

"When I jacked that round in the chamber, he sat down and was holding onto the rail," Easler said. "I know he was scared.

"I told him, You do anything sudden, you're liable to end up dead.' "

Douglas Michael Nickerson, 24, of 1530 Old Pacolet Road, Spartanburg, was arrested on the scene and charged with second-degree burglary, non-violent, and petit larceny, value less than $2,000. He remained in jail Sunday night in lieu of $7,500 bond.

Easler said he's glad he wasn't forced to shoot Nickerson, but he hopes his actions will lead to a conviction that will keep Nickerson off the streets. It is the 11th arrest for Nickerson in the past two and a half years, with charges ranging from criminal domestic violence to trespassing to drug possession, according to online jail records. Nickerson also was charged with second-degree burglary - in addition to driving under suspension and reckless driving - in November.

"This ain't the first time he's come inside somebody's house," Easler said. "If they don't send this guy to jail, the next guy may not be as tough as I am, and he could hurt somebody."

Sheriff Chuck Wright said Sunday night that while he was not familiar with the case, he was proud of Easler when told what Easler had done.

"That's why we have (guns), to protect ourselves with," Wright said. "I don't have any issues with what that gentleman did. I think he did a good job. ... That's the reason why good, honest citizens have a right to bear arms."

It all started like any typical Saturday, with Dot Easler arriving at the farmers' market around 7 a.m. and Ken working on the farm, which sits on the couple's 13-acre property, just down the hill from where Ken grew up. Ken Easler left the home around 9:30 or so to deliver an order of 10 dozen ears of corn to the market.

After returning to gather two baskets of green tomatoes, Easler went inside the home to get a drink when he made the unpleasant discovery.

"Thank God (Nickerson) wasn't armed," Dot Easler said. "If he had been armed, I think Ken would have shot him."

Her husband said Nickerson, as he was sneaking down the stairs and saw Easler with the gun, told him, "Don't shoot me; I just had to go to the bathroom."

"If he had been bigger and more intimidating," Easler said, "I probably would have shot him on the stairs, but I stayed calm and didn't get nervous or anything."

Click the link to read the rest. This man did everything perfectly, everything a law-abiding citizen should do when confronted by a criminal.

And yet, there are those of our fellow citizens who would have all law-abiding citizens disarmed, such as Mayor Daley in Chicago. Or the government of UK, where burglars and robbers can now enter one's house with total impunity.

The interior has a lunch counter and plenty of both booths and tables:

They had TV's scattered throughout, so you could watch news or sporting events. It's actually quite a large BBQ restaurant, with a huge parking lot. The decor is mostly photographs of cars from the muscle car era, and lots of newspaper clippings of local events. They even have a "Boss Hog" room:

But what about the food, you ask? They have a wide selection of short-order favorites in addition to barbecue, and they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sara ordered a large barbecue plate, and I ordered two large sliced barbecue sandwiches:

Sara regretted ordering fried squash, as it turned out to be frozen rather than fresh. The hush puppies were hand formed and edible, which is better than we have found in many barbecue restaurants. They weren't the best hush puppies we have eaten, though. The pork barbecue meat was sliced as we both requested; not much of a smoke ring in evidence, and not much smoke flavor, either. Still, it was properly tender, if a bit dry (order your barbecue chopped if you want to be able to properly moisten it with sauce). Porky's had two barbecue sauces on hand, a vinegar-based Eastern NC sauce (Sara pronounced it mostly vinegar and otherwise flavorless) and a dark brown tomato-based sauce that probably came from a commercial gallon jug, not much tang and a little too sweet.

Sara had thought about ordering banana pudding for dessert, but after she observed the waitresses manufacturing it behind the lunch counter using a 1-gallon can of commercial pudding glop and commenting loudly enough for Sara to hear about how many bananas to put into it, she decided to skip on the banana pudding. We skipped on the desserts, as a matter of fact.

Service at Porky's was quick and efficient, with our waitress only making one mistake when she poured iced tea into my Diet Coke. She caught herself and brought me a new one, so it was all right in the end.

After lunch we drove home via Albemarle, North Carolina, and stopped in at the Sonic Drive-In there, and ordered milk shakes for our delayed dessert. The waitress roller-skated our order out to us. If you're an American Idol fan, this particular Sonic is the drive-in that Kelly Pickler worked in during high school.

I'll give Porky's Bar-B-Q a three on my five-scale of BBQ restaurants: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management.

About Me

What I'm Reading

Rolf Nelson: The Stars Came Back

The MSM

A newsroom comprised entirely of leftists/liberals is no more capable of ideological objectivity than an all-white newsroom would be of racial objectivity, or an all-male newsroom of gender objectivity.

FlickR

Captain Louis Renault

"Round Up the Usual Suspects."

The Drawn Cutlass Philosophy

Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect, and don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security, it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.

Ambrose Bierce

The Foe

When I am free to walk the streets of Mecca or Medina as the agnostic I am and receive nothing but curious glances, I will believe Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.

Sign On. You Know You Want To.

A Few Words From Some Founding Fathers

Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)

Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.

Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

Bob's Addendum To Cooper's Rules

A Gun is not a Toy. Don't Play With It.

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies: The best hush puppies are oblong shaped, rather like dog turds. The worst ones are spherical, like balls. The spherical ones are usually made from the recipe on a pre-packaged box of hush puppy mix.

Restaurant Ratings

My restaurant ratings, mostly intended for BBQ restaurants, will be on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Unlike most reviewers, I don't intend to play games with the rating scale by introducing fractions such as "2 and 1/2" or "4 and 3/4," I've always considered that stupid and a signal that the reviewer is trying to avoid making an honest 1-5 judgment.

Here is the breakdown of the ratings:

1 out of 5: waste of time, crap, unable to finish eating; apathy by staff/ownership

2 out of 5: edible, but no effort to impress; staff/management going through motions

3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management

On Self-Reliance

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."